


At Home, Alone

by MercuryGray



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Sometimes Small Children are Theraputic, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21595777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryGray/pseuds/MercuryGray
Summary: After Malcolm announces at the office that he will be alone on Thanksgiving, Dani takes matters into her own hands.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 125





	At Home, Alone

"So, Bright, any big plans for tomorrow?"

It was Wednesday, and the office was quiet, most of the dayshift already on their way home. Gil, too, was already gone for the weekend, having left early for a long drive to Jackie's family upstate, and that left only Dani, JT and Malcolm, shrugging into their coats.

Malcolm looked mildly confused, that deer-in-the-headlights expression he seemed to carry around in his back pocket for just about everything that wasn't work related. "...Should I?"

"It's Thanksgiving, dude," JT said. "You telling me fancy Upper East Side people don't celebrate Thanksgiving?"

"Oh!" As usual, JT's not-so-subtle jab had failed to make a mark on Malcolm. "Um, we - well...no. We don't. My mother doesn't like throwing a party for less than twenty, and it's just the three of us, and...Ainsley doesn't eat meat, so...we just don't." He looked at Dani and JT with one of his biggest smiles. "It's fine, really! I have a book and a nice bottle of wine and a new jazz record. Just a normal, quiet day at home." 

Dani was beginning to learn those smiles - that was the one he wore when he was covering for something he knew people would pity him for. Malcolm Bright didn't have time for anyone's pity - but things were definitely not fine. 

It wasn't Bright's lack of plans, really, but more his...complete acceptance of the that made Dani's heart ache. She'd only met Jessica Whitly once, but it wasn't hard for Dani to imagine how spending a whole day with an overbearing socialite mother might be too much for any one person to handle. She couldn't think of a time that she hadn't loved holidays with her family. Even if a marathon ten hours of making food and chasing small children and shouting over everyone else and watching football even when you hated football left you feeling tired, it was a good kind of tired - a happy thing, that these were your people. Not having plans meant you didn't have people, that you were doing it alone, that when the going was tough, no one was going to have your back. _And he is so ...at home in being alone._

But to be alone? On Thanksgiving?

Dani looked at her keys for a moment, considered, and closed her eyes to sigh. _God, please don't let me regret this._

\----

  
Her mother met her at the door with apron on and hot mitts in hand. "What took you so long?" She asked, holding the door open so Dani didn't have to negotiate both the doorknob and the casserole dish. "Your aunt is is convinced you were kidnapped and is ten minutes away from calling the precinct."

"I had to pick up a friend - a _friend_ , mom," Dani clarified quickly as her mother's gaze went over her shoulder to Malcolm, coming up the sidewalk with a bottle of wine that he'd cheerfully informed her on the ride over was from a winery she only recognized from Vogue. "From work - Malcolm?"

"Malcolm?" Her mother leaned in. "Your crazy coworker? The one with the serial-killer - "

"He is not crazy, Mom," Dani hissed, as quietly as she could, hoping Malcolm wouldn't hear as he stepped inside the front door. "He was gonna be _alone_."

Mrs. Powell looked at Malcolm, now standing in the entryway and obviously still trying to get his bearings in the midst of the chaos, looking at everything and nothing at the same time, and her face softened. "So nice of you to join us, Malcolm."

"Thank you so much for having me, Mrs. Powell. I brought some wine." He held out the bottle and her mother took it with a smile, her eyes bugging out a little when she saw the label.

"How ...thoughtful!"

Malcolm looked like he was about to start on how it wasn't actually very thoughtful gift at all, but there wasn't time - two small figures rocketed out of the front room on socked feet and came crashing into the adults in the hallway.

"Auntie Dani, can you come help us?" Sophie and Isla were hopping up and down in front of her, simultaneously tugging her pantlegs and dragging her elbows in the direction of the front room. threatening to paint the floor with the dish she was holding.

"Yeah, Auntie Dani, we're gonna build a tower to the CEILING."

"You are?!" Child levels of enthusiasm required child-level responses. "I have to put these sweet potatoes down and then I can come help. Can my friend Malcolm help, too? He's really good at building towers." 

"Okay!" Malcolm looked like he was going to object, but four year olds with plans don't have time for quitters. Isla immediately latched onto Malcolm's hand and began pulling him into the living room. "You're really tall, you can help us build the tower too."

And - miracle of miracles - he went. Dani took a moment to watch him settle onto the floor, sitting on a block in the process, and try to listen very carefully as both Isla and Sophie shouted directions at him in stereo. When she came back from the kitchen ten minutes later, he still looked a little frazzled - but he was smiling. Genuinely, joyfully, in-spite-of-himself smiling. And Dani did not regret that at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't see the Whitlys as having very robust holiday traditions for lots of reasons - that they remind Jessica of Martin, that they make the family feel small, that cutesy traditions are something that 'other families' do. And we've already seen so far in Season 1 that Dani is a pretty caring person, behind her tough girl exterior. And Malcolm needs some normal in his life - even if normal sometimes looks like small children demanding you help them.
> 
> I have no idea what the show says in terms of Dani's family situation, but here I have given her an older married brother with two girls who are approximately 6 and 4.


End file.
